Fortune Cuisine 八味坊

It's a great place for gathering and dining.. If you are a good eater, you shouldn't miss the buffet steamboat here.. You can eat all you want! There's two soupbase for steamboat and there is BBQ station too.. There is also cooked food and sushi that you can request and they make for you on the spot.. Drinks and ice-cream are refillable.. And they will not chase you away, you can take your time to dine and chill.. There is beer in store but not included in the buffet, you may order seperately.. The ambience there is quiet and relaxing.. Miss the times with my hubby and kids eating there.. Planning to go again... =)

My friends and I absolutely adore steamboating and have visited this joint a few times. Some hits and misses about this place.

The steamboat offers tom yam, ma la, chicken and seafood soup which you can choose for the double sided pot. We took the combo of ma la and seafood. I personally hated the seafood soup cos I abhor seaweed which I didn't know would be inside. The ma la soup wasn't good at all too. I can't put a finger to what went wrong but it did leave a little sourish taste after you swallow the broth.

So that night I was practically whacking the stuff on the charcoal grill. The flower crabs were pretty tasty so you didn't need to dip it in any sauce. i suppose they salted it first. The crayfish was springy after grilled and was good with the special sauce that was provided. I love the scallops which gave out some juice after cooked and it was oh so tender and juicy.

The highlight of the night was practically the golden mushrooms wrapped with bacon sticks. We must have had dozens of them. Basically golden mushrooms and bacon won't go wrong.

As for the Jap section, there was a selection of sashimi, sushi, hand rolls, cha soba and tempura. The hand roll was quite tasty probably because of the fattening mayo inside. Fattening stuff usually taste better.

Quite a number of choices for drinks so that was a plus for me.

Service-wise, Fortune Cuisine needs some improvement. Food was not refilled when it got empty.

Not a place for people looking for good steamboat.

We were attracted to Fortune for its steamboat but left with a note to return for its barbeque items.

Food: Self service buffet, one price dinner. Four sections of buffet: The first is the raw food meant for steamboat, the second the marinhated meat items for the BBQ, ready to eat items and the dessert trays. Steamboat items are raw sliced frozen beef, chicken, flower crabs, prawns, scallops and vegetables. Meats were fresh and continually replenished so NO NEED TO RUSH, like some of the diners. You can either ask for the mixed stock (Tom Yam, plain stock or super spicey stock), or just one pot of one of the three types of stock. They use the induction mode of heating and it is not has warm as eating in a charcoal or gas fired steamboat. Tasty stock. Secondly, the BBQ items are displayed in a chilled container and what a variety, Jap style meats, Korean style meats, pork, beef and chicken. As we sat inside the ariconditioned area, you pick the raw marinated meats that you want BBQed and they do it for you inside the kitchen. NO SMOKE. Precooked items had salmon, tuna, octopus sashimi. Tuna was poor quality but the salmon was OK. They also had sweet and sour pork, fried fish and fried rice. Highlight was the tempura shisamo fish, and softshell crabs. However the frying is done by a staff and has to pick the right timing to go collect it as it disappears from the serving tray pretty fast. Finally, the buffet also has fresh fruits, ice cream and cakes. We enjoyed the selection of coffee and Dilmah teabags to end off the dinner with bonding conversation.

Ambience: 20pcnt indoors, 80 pcnt outdoors. We chose indoor as it had airconditioning. Most chose outside as they could BBQ the items themselves but we wanted to avoid smoke stained clothes. I figure if you want to eat the BBQ items, you should sit outside, but be forewarned, it is hot and very very SMOKEY. Friend went to the toilet and said that one should NOT go to the toilet if possible.

Value: On a Sunday night, worked out to be about $27 per head. Good deal as the quality of food was good - no mushy meat, and stale, stomach churning recycled food.

Service: Mainly China girls, friendly but a bit blurr. We lost one portion of our BBQ meat as it went into the kitchen and never came out. Slow if you want them to BBQ for you, faster if you BBQ yourself outside with the charcoal fired burner. They replenish the food regularly, never ran out of prawns and scallops.

Overall, a better option that Sakura for dinner and I felt that there was less of a rush as most patrons knew they would replenish the food regularly.

Went there 1 rainy night after work in Dec. Not sure if it was due to the time, the food was not as fresh as we had expected it to be, esp the sashimi, had to dip it into the steamboat instead. Prawns were also not fresh (read mushy).

As it was raining, we were given an inside seat which did not have the bbq on the table. We were told to pick what we want and hand it over to the staff who will bbq it and serve to our table. Our selection was forgotten and never delivered until we questioned the staff near to the end of our meal. And we were not even sure that it was our selection as my hb would never have selected the gizzards! Oh and the bbq food turned out super duper salty!

Dipping sauce was not replenished even when empty, and when I approached a waitress, we just promptly scooped out whatever was left in the near empty container and handed it to me! And it sucks!

Only plus was some nice cooked food and fried tempura, and a decent amount of raw food for the steamboat, though variety can't beat marina south.

Lousy service, pricey, dun think I'll be back

I went to Fortunate Cuisine on 28 Dec 2007. You have a choice to sit outside (al fresco) or inside (air-conditioned). If you sit outside, you can BBQ the meats your self, if you sit inside, the staff will do the BBQ for you.

My boyfriend and I chose to sit outside. There was a steamboat and a mini charcoal pot. For the soup, the choice is seafood, chicken, tom-yum or mala. The staff was nice enough to offer us 2 choices of soup, 1 spicy and 1 non spicy.

The spread of food was reasonable, there was sushi, selection of marinated meats, flower crab, prawns, crayfish and vegetables. The seafood was quite fresh, the prawns peeled quited easily. The drinks are free flow, included in the price of the meal. Dessert was cakes and swissrolls (did not look appetizing, so I did not eat them).

Then the problem came. The tables in the outdoor area was too high! In the end, we had to stand up to BBQ the food... not very comfortable at all.

Just beside Fortunate Cuisine was the Yum Yum Thai restaurant. In order not to let the smoke from the BBQ affect the diners at Yum Yum Thai, the management of the restaurant had one of those large air blowers right beside where we were sitting operating through out the whole dinner, so we had the blower blowing into our food and face the whole time. If you choose to go there, don't sit beside the blower or near it.

This place is kinda the in-between of Seoul Garden and the $10 BBQ thingy at Marina South.

For me, the dining experience was not fantastic. The wind from the blower and the too-high tables spoilt it.

Came here for a family dinner that involved girlfriend, brother's girlfriend, parents, etc. Reserved a table on the day before, but wanted to change the timing on the day itself, so called to change the reservation. The lady who picked up the phone could not speak a word of english, and I wonder if this is a good idea to let someone who only speak chinese to tend to the phone calls.

Arrived at the place, and after hearing all the hype about how sunset way is the new Holland V, was hugely disappointed. Was shown to our table, which was at the corner of the outdoor area. There was literally no lights, and our table was just covered in darkness. How to cook or even see if the food is cooked through if we can't even see the damn things? Requested for change in seat, and even asked if the outdoor lights can be adjusted in their angle to shine on our table, but we were met with the simple "it can't be done" from the manager. And for their chairs, what in the world is that? It bends all the way back, and to the floor. Anyone who weighs more than 45kg should not lean, as the spine rest of those chairs are just flimsy. I almost fell all the way backwards down to the grass patch when I tried to lean. If you want to get a table, make sure to request for the tables that have the proper metal and wooden woven chairs, or just sit indoors. Our request for changing of chairs was also met with a "can't be done" reply as there was not enough of those chairs. What restaurant don't put enough chairs?

Another bad service was when the manager immediately asked us to pay upfront, infront of everyone, which was quite rude, even though he asked whether everyone has already gathered. If they want us to pay first, they should at least put a notice infront of the restaurant. Mentioning about payment like that was just rude, and bad service, even though he was polite about it.

Food was generally good. I recommend sitting on a bright area outside though because you can do your own bbq, and its quite fun. What amused me was how they changed the nets for the bbq. They can change the nets while your food is still on it. What they do is they sandwich your food between the old net and the new net, and flip it over using their hands, and your food is now resting on the new net. Quite impressive. I also recommend the cooked tempura, and bbq chicken. They also serve chili crab which was quite good. Dessert was nothing to shout about, and I think they should put more ice cream choices instead of just mint and vanilla flavours.

As a bonus, there were 2 chinese musicians that played nice traditional chinese music. Not sure if they were hired by the restaurant or not, because there was a donation box infront of them, but it still set the mood.

ex colleagues decided to meet up for dinner last Friday, and it was decided that we would do something communal, and what better way than steamboat?

At the outset, I should say that the price was pretty darn good! Think it was $26 all in per person, which well doesnt have air con but can fight with the one I like at Hotel Royal... prices include free flow soft drinks some more..

Food was the standard steamboat fare, and at least the beef was not sliced so thin they tasted like paper.. in addition, there was sishamo, some basic Jap sushi, deep fried chicken bits, etc.

My appetite has decidedly decreased over the years, but Friday was 1 night where I didn't feel like I had overpaid for the food, given the relatively low price...

Helped that the service was pretty good too! The young boys had amazingly good attitude despite the hot sweaty weather and all...

Visited the place on 3/9/07 with my hubby. Due to the article on Sunday's Lifestyle and the drizzling weather, the restaurant was packed. Despite that, the waiters were extremely helpful and assisted to set up extra tables for us and another couple. Though they were slightly slow in laying the table and bbq pit, we were quite impressed with the spread of food and idea of having our very own charcoal pit to bbq.

Cooked items included sushi, fried noodles, fried chicken and squid. Raw foodstuff were also a cool spread, incl the norm sliced pork, beef, chicken, lamb and seafood like prawns, crabs, crayfish and mussels.

On top of the fun of bbq-ing our foodstuff, the steamboat was a yuan-yang version with half chicken soup n half mala soup. Oh, and not to forget the free-flow soft drinks, coffee and tea, as well as ice-cream for dessert.

The only hook is that b'coz it's in a neighbourhood location, there are lotsa people walking past your table every now and then, oogling at what you are eating and all that.

I'm already planning my next trip back with my colleagues!